


Nothing Is As It Seems

by Pluit



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Dark Tony Stark, M/M, Wolf!Loki
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-23 12:42:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14934464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pluit/pseuds/Pluit
Summary: Tony finds a wolf in his house, and then his world turns upside-down.





	1. i

Tony sat in the lounge of the Malibu mansion, one arm slung across the back of the couch and the other swirling a glass of whiskey around gently, ice clinking against the glass. He'd had an extremely stressful week, many small events culminating in his own company voting him out. He was pissed off, but there was nothing he could do about it - not right now, anyway, apart from making things even worse by showing up drunk and angry at the front desk.

He was still sorely tempted to do just that.

After everything with Extremis had gone down, he'd practically self-destructed, crashing two cars, being photographed with not one, but three barely of-age models in various compromising positions, and getting into an extremely public fight with a paparazzo who was, in hindsight, just doing his job, but had caught Tony on the edge of his temper.

All this had culminated in the company calling Tony in to talk about his position as the figurehead of Stark Industries. He was well prepared to talk them down from taking action against him, planning to sweet-talk the higher-ups into speaking to Pepper, who would surely side with him, right?

Wrong. The day of the meeting, he'd walked around the corner to come face to face with the glass walls of the room only to see Pepper sitting at the head of the god-damn table. He'd stormed inside, shouted at her demanding an explanation, and subsequently been escorted out by security after ten minutes of screaming and one thrown clipboard.

The letter that had arrived the next day contained everything he needed to know. Suspended from company activities, access to any confidential company information revoked (not that that'd stop him) and access to any SI buildings restricted until further notice.

Standing up with a grimace, Tony placed the glass down on the table in front of him somewhat forcefully, alcohol spilling over the sides and sloshing onto the surface below, and made his way over to the stairs down to the newly reconstructed lab. But as he reached the staircase, a voice chimed.

"Sir, there's been a breach."

"What?" Tony span round, swaying slightly from intoxication. "What do you mean? Someone's in the house? Where?"

"No, sir, it's a wolf. My sensors weren't picking up anything until a moment ago, it's as if it just... appeared." JARVIS sounded slightly concerned at this revelation, usually being confident in anything he picked up.

Squinting slightly through the whiskey-induced haze, Tony could see a black shape slumped against the concrete wall by the window.

"I'll take a look at your sensors if you want me to, buddy... But first, uh..." He took two hesitant steps back, hands brushing against the wall behind him to keep him from walking into it, and let out a panicked "How in the fuck do I deal with a wolf? Wolves fucking bite, right? Fuck!" and then, as if realising how unhelpful all of those questions were,

"Whadda I do, buddy?"

There was a moment of silence before JARVIS responded.

"Usually, I'd recommend removing yourself from the immediate area, sir, as wolves are incredibly protective of the space around them."

"But?"

"Sir, I think it's injured. Shall I call for someone to come and pick it up?"

Call him crazy, call him a stupid, idiotic drunk, but Tony took three steps towards the creature before realising he'd been asked a question, and stopping again to process the words.

"No, not yet. Run a quick diagnostic on your sensors, though." He continued towards the animal; he closer he was, the clearer he could see the matted fur on the animal's torso, the more the dark red blood glistened with echoes of the overhead lighting, and the less the natural fear from being near a predator screamed at him to run as far as he could in the other direction.

He stumbled as he walked past the table his glass was on, muttering an expletive as the side of his leg banged against the surface. At this noise, the wolf's head snapped up, two forest green eyes coming into view as the snout curled into a snarl. It made as if to stand, hackles raised, but quickly backed down, snarl quietening into pained whimpers that only edged Tony closer to the furry animal.

Tony crouched on the balls of his feet when he got within touching distance, tentatively stretching out an empty hand, palm down like you were meant to do with common dogs. Fully expecting the animal to try and bite his hand off, he was caught off guard by a snout slowly nosing into the hand, as if to say 'don't worry, I won't attack you right now'.

"Sir-"

Tony jumped back at the interruption, falling flat onto his ass.

"You're gonna give me a heart attack, J! Jeez..."

"Sir," JARVIS continued, "I completed the scan. All sensors working at 100%, no reported downtime in the past week."

Tony pushed himself back up into the half-crouch, looking back at the wolf.

"So where'd you come from, huh?"

The wolf gave him what could only be described as a cold glare. Tony sighed, muttering 'alright, alright' under his breath and shuffled right next to the animal.

"Here goes nothing, I guess." He reached down and hooked his arms under the animal, pausing slightly as the whimpers crescendoed briefly into a sharp whine, before stopping altogether, leaving only sharp breaths. Having gotten a grip on the wolf's torso, Tony lifted the animal into his chest and stood, making his way upstairs to the bedroom. Stumbling slightly as he walked across to the bed, Tony realised he'd sobered up considerably, which he'd be angry about, but all things considered, being intoxicated whilst dealing with a wild animal was probably not ver useful, so he let it go.

He laid the animal on silk sheets, before inspecting the gash decorating the midnight fur. Aside from the matted coat around the wound, it looked clean, no debris inside the flesh, but upon closer inspection, the fur around the injury wasn't just coated in blood, but looked to have been fused together as if burned.

Huh. That was weird. Usually any infury from fire resulted in the whole body covered in soot, lung damage, burns on the skin, but the wound wasn't cauterised at all. Tony glanced down at his hands - the right was slightly bloody, but no soot or ash. He let out a sharp breath, and then made his way over to the other side of the bed and sat, leaning back against the headboard and briefly closing his eyes before tilting his head to glance back down at the wolf.

"So..." Tony said contemplatively, "You just... appear. JARVIS sees everything here, and he didn't see you until you were well past any entrance. You, uh... there was no blood around where you were..." He dragged his hands down his face and exhaled before saying "JARV, bring up footage of Black's arrival, yeah?"

The screen flickered into life, and sure enough, the wolf had literally appeared out of thin air, as if by magic.

"Well," Tony mused, "This isn't the worst thing to happen all week." His eyes shut as he began working through scenarios in his head of what could have happened, but before he could shake himself back into alertness, he'd drifted off, a lullaby soft, sharp breaths accompanying him into unconsiousness.

\---

_Darkness floated all around him, and as he pushed himself up, slowly rising from the ground, he felt a weight settle on his shoulders, as if something was trying to push him back down._

_The bedroom was gone, replaced by an endless void, nothingness seeping from every nook and cranny, and he felt helpless, filled with despair._

_He took a deep breath, shouting, demanding to know where he was, but all that came out was a whisper, his voice refusing to obey him. His breath shook. He coughed, and when he looked down, his hands were smeared with blood._

_A whispering voice slowly made itself apparent, though Tony didn't understand a word of what was being said. The voice though, seemed almost familiar, and yet nothing he'd ever quite heard before, as if-_

They say you never really know what your own voice sounds like to others.

_He whipped around, and there in the nothingness sat himself, crouched down in a sinister pose. "What are you-" doing, Tony was going to say, but he... uh, the other Tony had lifted his head, eyes flicking up to meet his own._

_"_ You're listening _," he said, "_ but you're not hearing a word I say. _"_

_Tony took a step towards the other figure. "What do you mean? Who are you?"_

_"_ You've got to trust him. _"_

_"Answer my questions," Tony insisted, "Tell me where I am, or-"_

_"_ I'm you. But... not _yet." The other Tony narrowed his eyes, and then reached behind him, into the darkness, and grasped something small, round, and glowing emerald. "_ He's the only one you can trust, _" the other Tony finished, and then stepped forward, and thusted the emerald light toward Tony's chest, towards the arc reactor, and he didn't have time to react before the light expanded over his vision, smothering the darkness with green._

\---

He sat up in the bed, panting, and one of his hands reached up to paw at the reactor - still there, thank god, and looked to still be in one piece. Just a nightmare, then...

A low growl caught his attention, then, and his mind caught up with him, supplying the events of the night before. Right, angry wolf... where? A glance behind him confirmed his suspicions, the black beast was pacing back and forth.

"Something got your hackles raised?" The wolf gave Tony a look, as if to say _'Shut up, stupid human'_ , before snarling and jumping back up on to the bed. Tony jumped back a few inches in surprise, his head almost hitting the headboard behind him. Then he realised something was missing.

"JARVIS? Buddy? Why didn't you wake me?"

No reply.

"Jarv?"

As the silence filled the air, Tony jumped out of bed, pulling on the nearest shoes and running down the stairs, wolf on his tail. He reached the door to the workshop, punching in the code, and made his way straight over to the suits. But before he could reach them, he was attacked, something knocking him back, claws swiping at his face - wait, claws?

He had nothing to fight with, suits locked tight behind glass, and he could only deflect the swipes for so long, his arms were getting torn to shreds. He had perhaps seconds to do something, but there was nothing to fight with, he was backed into a corner, he couldn-

The monster was torn off his person in a flurry of black, as the wolf leapt onto it, teeth bared. It snapped at the monster, keeping it at bay long enough for Tony to wrestle the door to the suits open, grab a gauntlet, and fire, blasting clean through the flesh and leaving a gaping hole in its place.

Tony turned back to the suit, taking the other gauntlet and placing it on his body, along with the rest of the suit. He'd barely finished before he felt a nudge against his leg, and the world around him swirled into a nauseatingly colorful dizziness.

\---

Tony retched, inside his suit, quickly flipping the faceplate up before bending over and throwing up onto the frosty ground.

Wait, what? Frosty ground? But he was just inside the mansion...

And as he looked up, and the wolf transformed into a horribly familiar person, his brain spat out one traitorous thought-

_"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was meant to be a fluffy one-shot, then story happened, and... well. hope you enjoyed, kudos is greatly appreciated, and feel free to leave a comment - I always love to read them!


	2. ii

Tony straightened up, and stepped towards Loki, his first instinct to fight at the sight of his enemy. But then, Tony took a second to think about the situation; they'd both been attacked down in the workshop just a moment before, and last night, Loki had been pretty badly injured.

So, Tony thought, this wasn't as simple as being kidnapped by the bad guys (again).

"Hey there, Horns," Tony joked, "what brings you to this part of town? Speaking of..." A gesture to his surroundings was followed by "Where in gods name are we?"

Loki chuckled. "This planet is not named after any god. We're on Jotunheimr, another of the nine realms. I... apologise for your unease. It's not a pleasant experience when you don't know it's coming."

"Don't know when what's coming?"

"Don't play dumb, Stark, it doesn't suit you. And while we're on the subject of apologies, I'll give you one for the unexpected house guest too. I panicked when they followed me through the Paths, but you have my gratitude for sheltering me."

Tony chuckled. "Didn't know you could even feel remorse, Reindeer Games, what with the last time we met and all. Remember? Giant portal over New York? Not ringing any bells?"

"I hate to say," Loki replied with a grimace on his face, "that I was not completely... whole, back then. But I shall not be excusing myself for that one. I already have someone else to blame."

Tony couldn't help himself, verbal sparring was in his nature, and so when he instantly shot back with "Let me guess, family drama?" he wasn't expecting the curt nod that came in return.

"You know what?" he continued, "I don't think I'll ask you to follow that up right now."

"I'd think that's probably for the best. You'd have to buy me a drink first." He beckoned with a slender hand towards a mountain range in the distance. "I'd teleport again, but currently, they can track me that way, and I'd rather not lead them here after us. Besides, I already used a significant amount of my reserves on healing..."

"Wait, so whatever attacked me back there is following you? And they can trace your mojo? Hang on, but you... Back there, you..." Tony was obviously referring to Loki's form shift, however unsure he was of how to phrase it.

"No," Loki chuckled, "that's more of an... internal magic. Sorry, your language doesn't have an apt way to express it. I have a space left over from long ago, but it's the best I can access right now. You are welcome to stay with me..." He grinned and added "Or you could just stay here. Up to you."

Tony flipped his faceplate back down. "You know what they always say, stick with the tour guide... Lead on, Dancer."

  
\---

  
In just under an hour, Tony and Loki had reached the mountains. Loki had shifted back into his lupine form (it was hard to describe, it wasn't a morph or a transformation as much as he was just Loki one second and a black wolf the next) to run, and Tony had flown along. But as soon as they stepped (flew) onto the hills, Loki was back in his Asgardian form and waving aside a large rock to reveal a tunnel.

"Well, that's never been done before. 'Grats on the totally original secret hideout cover." Tony joked.

Loki shot back with a withering look before gesturing to Tony to follow him inside, and once they were safely out of the biting winds, the entrance closed back up. A short walk, and the tunnel opened out into a large cavern, obviously manmade as the walls and floor were all flat. A wave of a hand lit a fireplace to the side of the door, and the flame carried to sconces lined on the walls.

Tony opened the suit, and immediately stepped out, rubbing his hands together. "Fuck, it's cold out there. Natives must have a hard time getting a tan."

"The 'natives' are used to it, you dimwit."

Tony turned round to look at Loki, who was boiling water over the fire and preparing two cups of what looked to be some sort of tea, though the inventor wasn't sure.

"Thought I was supposed to be the one buying the drink. What, you live here in your spare time when you're not terrorising cities, or something?"

Loki picked up the kettle, and started to pour a steady stream of water patiently through a strainer, his back towards Tony. "I'm not a... _villain_ , Stark. I was controlled throughout the Chitauri invasion, as much as your archer was."

"You were controlled?"

"I was not in a good state of mind, and someone decided they could take advantage of that. I had... fallen." Loki moved on to the second cup. "To cut short a long story, that 'family drama' you brought up earlier was pertinent to what happened. I'd fallen into the void - I believe you know how being stranded in dark nothingness can twist a mind."

Tony was confused now, everything he thought he knew about the invasion being turned on its head more and more with every word that came out of the demigod's mouth. "You literally fell? That wasn't some grand phrase for feelin' a bit down? Wait, no, hang on, but big brother didn't mention anything about this when he turned up to steal you back from us on the jet."

Loki lifted the strainer from the cup and placed it down besides the two drinks. "He's not my brother." He lifted one of the cups from the rim (they had no handles) and turned around, handing the drink to the inventor.

Tony took the drink. "Well, I know he's as good as everyone thinks he is, but that's no reason to disown him."

"No," Loki sighed, "He's literally not my brother. That's what I found out when I was on Jotunheimr last."

Tony barked out a laugh. "You're adopted? And how did Ice World bring forth this revelation?"

Loki grinned darkly. "Do you know what the 'natives' of this planet look like, Stark? Not everyone looks Midgardian, as you are under the misconception of them being."

Tony tilted his head slightly in question, his eyes narrowing. The cup burned his hands, although the pain was dimmed by the cold seeping through his bones.

"They look..." Loki continued, "Something like this."

And then he turned blue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> updates in about a week! hope you enjoyed, kudos is greatly appreciated, and feel free to leave a comment!


End file.
